Backstreet Academy has clinched the top grant of €400,000 from Booking.com’s first accelerator programme for startups in sustainable tourism, Booking.com Booster.
After three weeks of workshops and intensive coaching, which started last month in Amsterdam, the 10 teams of finalists pitched their scaling plans to a live audience and panel of judges with Backstreet Academy emerging with the top monetary award.
Singapore-based Backstreet Academy, a peer-to-peer travel platform, was a finalist in WIT’s 2016 WITovation Awards. It bagged the ‘Best Inspiration’ award for its compelling content in exciting travellers and getting them to reimagine a destination/service/product. The winning campaign featured a moving video that showcases Backstreet’s efforts to create unique, local travel experiences through immersive encounters, one in which locals get a chance to earn a living by sharing their art with tourists.
Backstreet Academy’s guests having fun learning a Hmong traditional music instrument in Luang Prabang, Laos
Seabin, a startup co-founded by Australian Peter Ceglinski is awarded €350,000 in the same event.
The company was also voted employee favourite for its 30-second ‘bike pitch’, winning an additional €10,000 Booking.com credits to use for future stays.
The Seabin is an automated marina rubbish bin that collects floating rubbish, debris and oil that pass through a catch bag. It can use alternative power such as wind, wave or solar as a source.
The Seabin collecting floating rubbish, debris and oil
Booking.com Booster, launched in February, was created to identify, mentor and fund enterprising startups that seek to have a positive impact on the global tourism industry. They could do this through protecting the environment, preserving cultural heritage and/or promoting inclusive tourism that supports local economies and communities.
An estimated 700 startups from around the world applied to join the the three-week programme, which started in June 2017 in Amsterdam.
